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Wednesday, August 20, 2014

New Bullpup Design

Here it is; the bullpup I've been talking about for a long time.

This bullpup was designed by Xellah on NerfHaven. He was kind enough to give me the templates for the hdpe pieces and the catch. I then built the rest by referencing the templates. I was originally planning on making my own version of this type of bullpup. Using the moving catch like my other version, but with a sliding trigger and a handle that isn't screwed on through the main body. By doing this you can make the design much shorter, but different.

First of all, this blaster looks awesome. The handle, stock, clear PVC, and barrel just look sweet. It definitely rivals my +bow for looks. It's also very comfortable and compact. The stock is in the perfect place for this very short design and the handle is the ideal size. My only complaint is that the handle could be more rounded and the pump-grip is too boxy. This is the shortest blaster I have ever made with a full 7" of draw, but it is about the same length as a crossbow. This thing is basically the +bow of bullpups.

As for performance, this is on par with my two other bullpups of the same mechanism. It shoots super far and has a pretty good seal. The coolest part of this is the slam-fire though. The slam-fire makes it have a rate of fire better than any homemade I have ever seen and it is just fun to use. I wish that the pump grip was better though because it does make firing a bit more difficult. Other than that, this blaster is an amazing homemade and kudos to Xellah for making it so great.

There are some things with this that I am not a fan of and that I want to change next time. For one, the square plunger rod. This doesn't let the plunger rod rotate and I'm having some problems with the spring kinking. With a nylon omni-directional plunger rod, the catch is easier to make, the plunger rod can rotate, and I can use a PETG sheath. Also, I made the catch the way Xellah did which is by not having screws fastening the two parts of the catch together. Instead, the pieces are individually screwed into the 1" PVC. This made it harder for me to fasten the catch and it made me have some other problems. The last part is the pump grip. It simply isn't very comfy. I have some ideas to fix it and that might happen on this model or the next model. Xellah and I have been talking about these improvements, so expect to see those from him first and maybe me eventually.

I still plan to continue my bullpup design. That will still be my priority. I know these two are very similar, but they do have their differences. For my next design, I plan to shorten it and do some other things that will make it nice. If you can't already tell, I really like bullpups.